Eurasian Pre history, 8 (1–2): 3–28.

THE PLEISTO CENE HUMAN SETTLE MENT IN GILAN, SOUTH WEST CAS PIAN SEA: RE CENT RESEARCH

Fereidoun Biglari1, 2 and Vali Jahani3

1 Paleolithic De partment, Na tional Mu seum of Iran, 30 Tir St., Emam Ave., Teh ran, Iran 2 l’Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire (PACEA), Bâtiment de géologie B 18, Av e nue des Facultés, Université Bor deaux 1, 33405, Talence Cedex, France; [email protected] 3 Ar chae o log i cal Ser vice Sec tor of Gilan, Ira nian Cul tural Her i tage, Hand i crafts and Tour ism Or ga ni za tion, Rasht, Iran; vali_jahani@ya hoo.com

Ab stract This paper reviews recent devel op ments in the Paleolithic archae ology in the Gilan region of southwest ern Caspian Sea utiliz ing infor ma tion accu mulated over the last decade. The doc u mented sites fall within the Early to the Late Paleolithic peri ods and include both shel tered (caves and rock shelters) and open-air sites. The Lower Paleolithic sites of Ganj Par and Darband pro duced archae o logi cal record dating back at least to Middle Pleis tocene. For the later Middle Paleolithic pe riod, the only known site is Yarshalman, while late Paleolithic remains are known from at least four caves and rock shelters and two open-air sites. Gilan cur rently fur nishes the most convinc ing evi dence for the Acheul ian indus - try in Iran and the earli est radio met ric date for the presence of hominins in the Iranian Plateau.

Key words: Alborz, Paleolithic, Ach eulian.

of the Alborz Mountai ns in the southwest of the IN TRO DUC TION Cas pian Sea. Gilan’s geograph ica l posi ti on on the way be - tween the Cau casus re gion and cen tral Iran and its great eco log ical di ver sity make it a key re gion for PHYSIO GRAPHIC SETTING un der stand ing hu man pop u la tion move ments and The exten sive east-west trending Alborz their cul tures dur ing Plio-Pleis to cene and Pleis to - Moun tains is the most prom i nent top o graph i cal cene. The Caspian coastal plain and the Sefidrud feature to the south of the Cas pian Sea. It runs River with its trib u tar ies combin ed with gen eral nearly par allel along the southern coast of the marked en vi ron men tal vari a tions in this re gion Caspian Sea and sep arates hu mid zone of the Cas - supporte d a diverse fauna and flora during the pian lowlands from the arid uplands of Centra l Pleisto cene which in turn provided rich ground Iran, form ing a barrie r betwee n these two regions. for hominin exploi tati on (Figs 1, 2). The deep transversal gorge of the Sefidrud (lit., De spite its rich po ten tial for Paleolithic archa- ‘White River’) sep arate s the Alborz from the eology, the region was unknown unti l the turn of west ern highlands of the Talesh Mountai ns. The twenty-first cen tury. Dis cov ery of at least nine Sefidrud is the main river of the region and the Paleolithic sites in var ious parts of the region dur- largest one reaching the southern shore of the ing the recent de cade demon strates its po ten tial Cas pian Sea (Figs 1, 2). for Paleolithic studies . Although few in num ber, The Alborz and the Talesh Mountai ns occupy these recent ly discov ered sites shed new light on most of the Gilan province in southwest of the hu man Pleis to cene oc cu pa tion in the west ern part Cas pian Sea. To its north lie the Cas pian coastal 4 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 1. Lo ca tion map of the known Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic sites in the Gilan prov ince of north west ern Iran. In set bot tom left: Lo ca tion of Gilan in South west ern Asia

plain with the Sefidrud Delta in the east and the Re gional cli mate change dur ing Pleis to cene Fumanat plain in the west. A num ber of minor ri- is de tectable in the loess depos it s along the Sefi- vers origi nat ing in the northern foot hills of the Al- drud gorge. Two loess-soil se quences at Rostama- borz and the Talesh cross the narrow coastal plains. bad and Saravan have been studied (Kehl et al., The climate of Gilan is tem per ate in the north 2008). These se quences show an alter nati on of (i) and becom es semi-arid in the south toward up- compar atively dry and cool clim ate phases with lands of Centra l Iran. The rain-fed northern slopes in creased dust ac cu mu la tion in clud ing loess for- of the Alborz and northeas tern part of Talesh are mati on, and (ii) moist and warm phases with soil covered with dense forest s subdi vided into two for ma tion, re spec tively (Fig. 3). Sev eral paleosols disti nct subty pes: the so-called Hyrcanian forest , were recog nize d in the profil es de veloped under and the hum id montane forest . The Hyrcanian for- forest vege ta ti on (Kehl, 2009). Re cent datings of est proper has been re placed from 800–1000 m Luminesance sam ples taken from sec tion of Ros- above sea level (a.s.l.) by the hum id montane for- tamabad yielded two age esti mates of 63.7 ± 5.8 ests (Ehlers, 1999). Hyrcanian forest is rich in rel- ka BP and 130 ± 12 ka BP (Fig. 3). The older date ict spe cies and its diver sity of ed ible plants and com es from a sam ple taken from below of the first as so ciated fauna could have been an at trac tive ha- buried paleosol, which indi cat e the first paleosol bitat for the Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic hunter- is prob a bly cor re lates with the last or older inter - gath er ers. glacia l soil (Kehl, 2010). The sam ples obtai ned The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 5

Fig. 2. An over view of the Gilan prov ince south west of the Capian Sea; look ing to the east. 1. Lasulkan; 2. Yarshalman; 3. Chaplak; 4. Darband; 5. Malehan A; 6. Askabon sites; 7. Khalvasht; 8. Ganj Par; 9. Sho’ul (cour - tesy of Christoph Hormann with some modi fi ca tions: http://earth.imagico.de/view.php?site=elbrus3 [Accessed 21 De cem ber 2010]) from the sec tion of Saravan yielded age es tim ates lack of ar chae o log i cal ex ca va tions in known strat- ranging from 22.7 ± 2.5 to 47.9 ± 4.8 ka BP indi - ified sites, makes it dif fi cult to have any spec u la - cat ing loess de posi ti on at Saravan occurred dur - tions about the ranges and effect s of such envi ron - ing OIS 3 and 2 (Kehl, 2010). men tal changes on lo cal hu man pop u la tions. Cli mate change is also re flected in old ter - races of the Sefidrud which have been studied by a num ber of resea rchers (Ehlers, 1971; Paluska RE SEARCH BACK GROUND and Degens, 1980; Busche et al., 1990; Maeo- Apart from a handful of the Late Paleolithic moku, 2003). However, the signif i canc e of these sites re corded in the east ern and cen tral parts of the ter races as mere ev idence for cli matic change is Alborz and the southern Caspian ba sin, the Early questi onable since tectoni c upli ft has also been in- Paleolithic period of the region was unknown unti l volved in their form ati ons (Kehl, 2009). Evi dence the be ginning of the twenty-first century . The for Pleisto cene upli ft in the Alborz Mountai ns known sites in the east ern and centra l Alborz in - could be found in the form of incis ed river ter- clude the Hotu and the Belt Caves (Coon, 1951, races and coastal marine ter races (Berberian, 1952, 1957), and the Ali Tappeh Cave (McBurney, 1983). The area is seis mically active (Berberian, 1964, 1968). In the past two decade s, a num ber of 1983; Jackson et al., 2002) and during the 1990. new sites were dis cov ered in the eastern and cen - 06.20 Mw 7.3 Rudbar earthquake the whole area tral Alborz: (i) the Komishan Cave lo cated near the was com pletely dev as tated (Berberian et al., city of Behshahr (Heydari, 2003; Naderi, 2003; 1992; Berberian and Walker, 2010). Shidrang, 2003; Mashkour, 2010); (ii) the Qaleh Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic hunter-gath er - Asgar, Moghanak and Otchounak open-air sites lo- ers and faunal and floral resource s of the region cated near the city of Damavand (Amirlou, 1991; have been af fected by the Pleisto cene cli mate and Berillon et al., 2007); and (iii) the Garm Roud 2 the Cas pian Sea level changes. But at pres ent, site lo cated to the south of the city of Amol (Beril- 6 F. Biglari & V. Jahani ) 0 1 0 2

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Ta ble 1 Sum mary of known Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic sites (and a pos sible site) in Gilan El e va - Ar chae o log i cal Ex po sure Ar chae o log i cal Re searcher No. Site Co or di na tion tion Set ting Sources pe riod di rec tion re mains (s) (m) Biglari, Biglari et al. 36°53'34"N, 1 Ganj Par 235 open - Lithic ar ti facts Heydari, 2004; Biglari and 49°28'56"E Lower Shidrang Shidrang 2006 Paleolithic Biglari, Biglari et al. 36°50'10"N, 2 Darband 800 Jahani, 2006; Biglari and 49°39'29"E Lithic south ar ti facts, bone, Shidrang Shidrang 2006 36°45'51"N, Mid dle pot sherds Bae and 3 Yarshalman 1948 http://hyicp.or.kr 50° 4'41"E Paleolithic Bagherian cave Jahani, Bae 36°48'06"N, Up per Jahani (2006); 4 Malehan A 810 north and 49°40'32"E Paleolithic ? http://hyicp.or.kr Bagherian Falahian, Falahian 2006a,b; 36°38'13"N, Up per 5 Chapalak 1230 south Bae and Jahani 2010; 50° 3'46"E Paleolithic ? Lithic ar ti facts, Bagherian http://hyicp.or.kr 36°52'57"N, pot sherds Ohtsu and 6 Sho'ul Epipaleolithic 960 open - Adachi 2004 49°24'27"E Nokandeh Up per Biglari and Abdi. 36°39'04"N, Biglari and 7 Khalvasht Paleolithic/ 1110 south 2001; Biglari and 49°41'19"E Abdi Epipaleolithic rock- Abdi. 2003 shel ter 36°40'26"N, Epipaleolithic west-south Lithic, bone 8 Askabon A 1045 49°45'06"E ? west pot sherds Biglari and Biglari and Abdi. 36°40'26"N, Abdi 2003 9 Askabon B Epipaleolithic 1040 - Lithic ar ti facts 49°45'04"E open 36° 54? N , Egami and 10 Lasulkan ? 1650 - Lithic ? Egami 1963 49° 55? E col leagues

lon et al., 2007, 2009). These sites fall within the ble 1), produced a small assem blage of flake in- Mid dle Paleolithic to Epipaleolithic and Neo lithic dustry and faunal rem ains dom inate d by cave bear time perio d. dat ing back to the Late Mid dle Pleis to cene. Un til re cently the western part of the Alborz, es pe cially the Gilan Prov ince was vir tu ally un - Ganj Par known. This lack of infor m ati on was parti cu lar ly This site lies at an ele va ti on of about 230 m due to the fact that archae ology in Gilan has been a.s.l. (Figs 1 and 2), on a ter race of the Sefidrud in focuse d on the Bronze Age and the Iron Age cem - the Rostamabad plain (Biglari et al., 2004; e ter ies as well as the his tor ical pe riod sites; while Biglari, 2005; Biglari and Shidrang, 2006). The sites of ear lier pe ri ods were vir tu ally ig nored. site of Kaluraz with Iron Age and his toric occu pa - tional rem ains lies at northern edge of the Ganj Par (Hakemi, 1973; Ohtsu et al., 2006) The geo- THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC morphol ogy of the Rostamabad re gion has been Early hominins were appar entl y present in descri bed by Ehlers (1971), Maeomoku (2003) the Gilan re gion at least since the Mid dle Pleis to - and recently Amini (Sarem Amini, per sonal com - cene pe riod. The ev idence co mes from the Ganj mu ni ca tion 2010). Ehlers dis tin guished five flu- Par site with a def inite Ach eul ian techno-typo- vial ter races be tween el eva tions of 1 to 70 m logy asso ci ate d with one of the terrace s of the above the val ley floor. Ac cording to Maeomoku Sefidrud River. Another known Lower Paleo- there are five ter races at the west ern part of the lithic site, the Darband cave (Figs 1, 2 and 8; Ta- plain, at ele va ti ons 15 to 665 m above the plain. 8 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 4. A gen eral view of the Ganj Par site (1) and the nearby site of Kaluraz with the Iron Age and historic re - mains (2). View look ing to the north

The Ganj Par lithic scat ter is lo cated at ele va tions abra sion on the ar tifacts may in di cate there was of 90 to 100 m above the Sefidrud valley (al ti - no sig nif i cant post-depositional dis tur bance, al- tudes 225–235 m a.s.l.), higher than ter race IV, though there is a pos si bil ity that some lighter ar ti - and may have been reworked from depos it s of the facts were washed away. older/higher terrace s (Figs 4 and 5). The assem blage is com posed of high frequen - During three visit s to the site about 140 ar ti - cies of core-choppers and cores, along with core- facts in an area of about half a hect are were col- scrap ers, bifaces, large flakes, and hamm ers. The lected. Although plowing in the sam pled area has bifacial as sem blage is com posed of hand axes, re lo cated ar ti facts hor i zon tally and ver ti cally. But cleav ers, a par tial hand axe and a pick (Figs 6 and all pieces were plotted on topo graphi c map to re- 7). Bifaces are made by faconnage and debitage cord all poten ti al infor m ati on (Fig. 5). Alm ost on limestone and volca nic rocks. There is a ten- half of the as semblage is made of fine-grained dency to use flakes as blank for produc ti on of limestone that com es from the local bedrocks. A hand axes and cleav ers. The cleav ers and core- large propor ti on of the other arti facts are made of scrapers found are the first-known exam ples of sed i men tary (red sand stone, quartz ite), vol ca nic these types in a Lower Paleolithic ar chae o log ical (an de site, ba salt), and vol cano-sed i men tary (tuff) context in Iran (Fig. 6). rocks which pri maril y come in form of water Cores have a wide range of size and they worn pebbles and cobbles from sec ondary gravel were mod ified al most en tirely of limeston e. Cores sources along the Sefidrud and its left bank tribu - are cat e go rized as uni po lar, mul ti ple, dis coid, and tary of Kaluraz. The pres ence of some small inde ter minate . There is also some anvil or bipo lar flakes in the as semblage and the low degrees of cores that made of river pebbles and cobbles. The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 9

Fig. 5. A view of the Ganj Par sur face lithic scat ter; look ing to the east. A core on flake from the site is shown in the inset

A single sub-spheroid is also pres ent in the as- (Biglari and Shidrang, 2006; Biglari et al., 2007, sem blage. An in ter est ing as pect of the in dus try is 2008). Some large fragm ents of cal cite flowstone selec tive use of limestone for the produc ti on of were found around the pit. A prim ary exam ina ti on cores and core-scrap ers, and a ten dency to use of the pit indi cat ed the presence of two main natu - quartzit e pebbles and cobbles for core-chopper ral layers sep arated by a 3–5 cm thick calcite pro duc tion. flowstone layer. The lithic and fau nal re mains most proba bly came from the lower layer that Darband Cave com posed of light reddish sedi m ents. The extent Not far from Ganj Par, the recent ly discov - of the speleothem floor is not known. But it is ered site of Darband has yielded the first known prob a ble; the Mid dle Pleis to cene sed i ments were evi dence of the Lower Paleolithic occu pa ti on in a sealed and protec ted from later erosions by this cave site in Iran (Fig. 8). The Darband cave is lo - cap of calcite layer. cated on the northern side of a deep canyon at The fau nal as semblage from the cave is domi - southern forest ed slopes of Mount Dorfak to east nated by cave bears, with a few un gu late rem ains. of the Sefidrud gorge. The site lies at an alti tude The assem blage is com posed of mostly skele tal of 800 m a.s.l. During two surveys a sizeable parts, the most di agnos ti c ones being the tooth re- num ber of fau nal rem ains and 25 stone arti facts mains. The re mains of two adult cave bears could were collec ted from back dirt of a pit dug by loot- be identi fied on the ba sis of cranial and post cra- ers along the western wall of the main gallery nial bones (Fig. 9). On the basis of detailed analy - 10 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 6. Lower Paleolithic ar tifacts from Ganj Par: 1. cleaver; 2. heavy duty scraper; 3. handaxe The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 11

Fig. 7. Large cut ting tools from Ganj Par: 1. handaxe; 2. cleaver 12 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 8. A view of the Darband Cave and a larger cave ad ja cent to it over look ing a deep can yon; a close view of its en trance is shown in the in set The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 13

Fig. 9. A broken man di ble of cave bear from Darband Cave (Biglari et al., 2007)

sis of the bones, it is pos si ble to al lo cate these re - two bear teeth that were found in association with mains to Ursus deningeri paleokudarensis the lithic artifacts. (Biglari et al., 2007). The lithic artifacts are mainly made of chert, Lasulkan followed by tuff and other vol canic rocks. Flakes The Lasulkan hills are lo cated to the east- make up the majo r ity of the artifacts, with their northeas t of Dailaman, at an al ti tude of about plat form left plain or retai ning cor tex. The major - 1650 m a.s.l. (Figs 1, 2 and 11). Looters acti vi ti es ity of flakes have a high flaking angle excee ding in some stone cham bered tombs in this area at- 90 degrees . Most of these flakes show some re- tracted a Japa nese team to the region who under - touch. The collec tion also include s one core- took exca va ti ons that re vealed a num ber of the chopper (Fig. 10). A thick flake with a convex Iron Age tombs yielding hum an skele tons and profil e and sub-radial dorsal scar pat tern may potter y (Egami, 1963). Two layers of vol canic ash have been struck from a biface which in turn contai ning pum ice rock were exposed under the could be evi dence for the presence of an Acheul - up per ar chae o log i cal layer. The sec ond layer con - ian in dus try at the site. How ever, it is nec es sary to tains some flint pieces (Fig. 12) reporte d by have larger lithic samples to at trib ute this as sem- Egami (1963) as cores and flakes: “The flake im - blage to a cer tain Lower Paleolithic in dus try ple ments of flint ma te rial are not in par tic u lar (Biglari et al., 2007). The pre lim i nary ob ser va tion forms char ac ter is tic of stone im ple ments and it is based on both lithic and faunal assem blages indi - not clear which part of the stone age they belong cated a prob able late Middle Pleis to cene age for to … some of cores are clear cut on the surface the site (Biglari et al., 2007). This prim ary rel a- and others are worn out to a cer tain extent by the tive dat ing was confirm ed by U-serie s dat ing of movement of heaped earth.” (Egami, 1963: 14 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 10. Selected Lower Paleolithic lithic arti facts from the Darband Cave: 1. single side-scraper; 2. pointed tool with retouched lateral edges; 3. core-thick end scraper; 4. single side-scraper made on natu rally backed flake; 5. chop per-like core The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 15

Fig. 11. A gen eral view of Lasulkan. Egami’s ex ca va tion is shown in the bot tom left in set (Egami, 1963)

22–23). Simi lar lay ers with flint pieces are re - vey and test ex cava tions in the site yielded a small ported from the nearby Parthian [250 B.C.–224 number of Mid dle Paleolithic lithic ar tifacts (three AD] site of Ghalekuti. The real na ture of these pieces), faunal rem ains (herbi vore tooth) and Iron claimed ar tifacts and their ash layer con text is not Age pot sherds (Daegu Na tional Museum , 2009). clear. However, judg ing on the publi shed draw- ings, they look to be geofacts1. In spite of the am - bi gu ities, it is worth ex amin ing the area to clar ify THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC AND the na ture of the reporte d ash layers and their EPI-PALEOLITHIC environmental im pacts on Pleis tocene hunter- gath er ers. Khalvasht Rockshelter The Khalvasht Rock shelter is locat ed in the THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC Amarlou Region, along the Loshan-Jirandeh road, and at an alti tude about 1100 m a.s.l. (Figs 1, Yarshalman 14; Ta ble 1). The site was discov ered by Hossein The Mid dle Paleolithic oc cu pa tion of Gilan is Abdi, who initi ally found some Parthian pot- poorly known and there is only one known site, sherds and a flint ar tifact on its ta lus slope. This the Yarshalman rock shelter (Fig. 13; Ta ble 1), discov ery was fol lowed by a more exten sive sur- that was discov ered in 2006 (Jahani and Mousavi, vey of the site by Biglari and Abdi in late August 2005) and tested by a joint Korean-Ir anian team 2000 (Biglari and Abdi, 2001). The shelter faces direct ed by K. Bae and M. Bagherian in 2007– south and is locat ed at the base of a serie s of con- 2008. The re port has not yet been publi shed and glom erate outcrops that are about 160 m long. A there is a short note in an exhi bi ti on cat alogue spring emerges about 300 m to the southwest of publi shed by Daegu Na tional Museum (2009: the site. This spring suppli es drinking wa ter to the 312–313) as well as some infor m ati on available Khalvasht vil lage locat ed betwee n the spring and on the website of the Hanyang Univer sit y (Bae, the rock shelter . At the eastern end of the rock 2009). The rock shelter is locat ed in the Siah-Kal shel ter, there is a cav ity of about 5 m deep and Region, to the east of the Gilan province , at an al - 10 m wide. The small cave contai ns no sedi m ents ti tude of about 1900 m a.s.l. (Fig. 2). Surface sur- and the bedrock is exposed. The ta lus slope at the 16 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 12. Claimed Paleolithic arti facts from Lasulkan (Egami, 1963) The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 17

Fig. 13. Yarshalman Cave. A and B: Two views of the site. C and D: Brecciated de posit and a Mid dle Paleolithic ar ti fact (Daegu Na tional Mu seum, 2009) front of the cave ex tends to a seasonal stream, and dif ficult to evalu ate . In the absenc e of re- which has slightly washed away its lower slope touched tools, the presence of blade/bladelets and (Fig. 15). the bladelet core tab let in the sample may in di cate Dur ing the first visit nine flint ar tifacts were an Upper/ Epipaleolithic age for the site. col lected from the washed area (Fig. 16). Later 18 ar tifacts were collected dur ing a sec ond visit to Askabon Sites the site in 2002 at the same point of down slope Askabon consis t of an open-air site and a rock (Fig. 16). Arti facts did not form a conti nu ous dis - shel ter that were discov ered in 2001 by H. Abdi in tri buti on across the talus slope and were concen - northwest of the Askabon village , some 6 km to trated in the eroded part, ad ja cent to the stream the northeas t of Khalvasht (Figs 1 and 2; Table 1). (Fig. 14). These arti facts may have eroded out The open-air site is locat ed at an al ti tude of 1040 m from oc cu pa tional de pos its orig i nally ac cu mu - a.s.l., about 4 km to the southwest of Jirandeh. The lated in the rockshelter and washed down to the site is a flint scatter along west ern edge of a rel a - lower part of the slope. tively deep ra vine, which runs in the north-south The ar tifacts are made of gray and black direc ti on (Figs 17 and 18). This ravine local ly chert, red variant of fine red-green chert, fine dark called Noh-joob Dareh leading to the Sarom brown chert, and one exam ple of white chert. River. These rock types are found in pebble and cobble Abdi collec ted 23 flint ar ti facts and an addi - size (50 to 200 mm) in the area. The sam ple in - tional five pieces were found while Biglari and cludes 18 flakes, one flake fragm ent, five blades Abdi re visit ed the site (Biglari and Abdi, 2003). and bladelets, one small flake core, one core tab - Used raw mate rial is almost simi lar to those of let, and one shat ter. The core tab let is from a bla- Khalvasht and dom inate d by black and gray cherts, delet core with scares of pre vi ous bladelets re - some fine red chert, one piece of chalce don y and movals (Fig. 16: 8). The col lec tion is too small small num bers of poor qualit y rocks. The assem - 18 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 14. The Khalvasht rock shel ter look ing to the north. Arrow showing the lo ca tion of the flint scat ters The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 19

Fig. 15. Profile of the Khalvasht rock shel ter and its ta lus slope (the scale bar de fines the hor i zon tal dis tance)

Fig. 16. Late Paleolithic ar ti facts from the Khalvasht rockshelter: 1. bro ken blade; 2. blade frag ment; 3. bladelet; 4. flake; 5. flake core; 6. bladelet fragment; 7 and 9. flakes; 8. bladelet core tablet. 20 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 17. Gen eral view of the Askabon sites near the Askabon vil lage; looking to the south (cour tesy of Hossein Abdi). The vil lage of Askabon was com pletely de stroyed dur ing the 1990.06.20 Mw 7.3 Rudbar earth quake (Berberian et al., 1992; Berberian and Walker, 2010)

Fig. 18. Ae rial photo of Askabon show ing lo ca tion of the rockshelter and the open-air site at north west of the vil - lage (Google Earth) The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 21 blage include s 14 flakes, four flake fragm ents, one core face-cleaning flake, one chunk, and six retou- ched tools (Fig. 19). Tools include an end-scraper on flake, a bec on a core frag ment, an atyp ical bu- rin, an obliquely truncat ed flake, a scraper on flake, and a truncat ed blade (Fig. 20). The indus try is flake dom inate d with only one exam ple of a blade. The rock shel ter is lo cated at the east ern side of the ravine, oppo sit e to and on the same level as the lithic scat ter (Figs 17 and 18). It is lo cated at the base of a serie s of rock out crops along the eastern side of the ravine. The shel ter is measur - ing 27 m long by 4 m deep, and faces to the west- southwest , overlook ing the ravine. About 11 m of its floor, along the back-wall, is protec ted under the overhang. Some large rockfalls are visi ble on the floor and on its ta lus slope. The site is es ti - mated to con tain at least two meter of ar chae o log - ical depos it s, as a pit dug by looters close to the backwall pene tra ting 150 cm deep into the de- posit. Several pieces of pot sherds of possi ble Iron Age and some mam malian and hu man skel etal re - mains were scat tered in the backdirt of this pit. Not far from the pit a blade with oblique trunca - tion and a small shat ter was found (Fig. 19). The pres ence of an end-scraper, a trun cated blade and some unretouched blades/bladelets in the Aska- bon assem blages may indi cat e an Epipaleolithic date for these two related sites. In addi ti on to the above-menti oned sites, a num ber of rock shel ters were also spotted by Biglari and Abdi along the Loshan-Jirandeh road that may contai n more evi dence of proba ble Late Fig. 19. A blade with oblique trun ca tion from Aska- Paleolithic occu pa ti ons (Biglari and Abdi, 2003). bon rockshelter

Sho’ul During a general survey of the Sefidrud gorge Malehan-A Cave con ducted by a joint Jap anese-I ra nian team direc- The Malehan-A cave and its ad ja cent Male- ted by T. Ohtsu and J. Nokandeh in 2002–2003, han-B cave are lo cated at an al titude of about two surface finds were col lected at Sho’ul in the 800 m a.s.l., in the Rudbar region (Figs 1 and 23; Ganj val ley, some eight km to the north of Rudbar Table 1). This north-facing cave site was dis cov- (Fig. 1; Ta ble 1). The lithic arti facts were found on ered by Vali Jahani in 2006 while exca vat ing the a steep slope that leads to a flat area along the val- Iron Age ceme tery of Vatel in the vi cin ity of the ley (Fig. 21). The finds consis t of a truncat ed blade cave. He reg istered this cave site and its neigh bor - made on shale and a small cor tical flake made of ing cave on the Na tional Reg is ter of His toric Pla- chert (Fig. 22). These finds are attri buted tentati- ces in the same year. A joint Ko rean-Ira nian team vely to the Epipaleolithic period based on the pres - direct ed by Kidong Bae and Mohammad Reza ence of the truncat ed blades (Adachi, 2004). These Bagherian re vis ited the Malehan-A Cave and con - ar tifacts may have been eroded from an open-air ducted test exca va ti ons in the site in 2007. Test site buried under more recent slope colluviums. ex ca va tions re vealed an ar chae o log i cal se quence 22 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 20. Lithic ar ti facts from the Askabon rock shel ter (A) and Askabon open-air site (B): 1. blade with oblique trun ca tion (Askabon A); 2. end-scraper on flake; 3. atypi cal burin; 4. end-scraper; 5. bec; 6. trun cated blade; 7. bro - ken bladelet; 8. obliquely trun cated flake

Fig. 21. Two views of Sho’ul, the Ganj Val ley (Adachi, 2004)

that yielded a microlithic in dus try in its up per east of Naudeh vil lage, in the Amarlou region layer. The lithic col lec tion (34 pieces) in cludes (Fig. 1; Ta ble 1). This south-facing cave is about blades, bladelets and flakes attri buted to the 45 m deep and consis ts of a main cham ber in front Upper Paleolithic period (Bae, 2009). and two smaller chambers at rear of the cave. A stream flows in the rear chamber. It was dis cov - Chapalak Cave ered by Yousef Falahian in 2003 (Falahian, The cave site of Chapalak is lo cated about al- 2006a, 2006b; Jahani, 2010). He found a num ber ti tude of 1230 m a.s.l., some 1800 m to the south - of potsherds and ani m al and hum an bones that The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 23

Fig. 22. Two late Paleolithic ar ti facts from Sho’ul: 1. trun cated-re touched blade; 2. unretouched flake (Adachi, 2004) 24 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Fig. 23. The en trance of Malehan Cave from in side

were assigne d to the Neoli thic and the Iron Age region); Tavelas, and Boz Khaneh Caves (Fau- times (Falahian, 2006a, 2006b). The site was man region); Liaroo Cave (Langerud region); and tested by a team direct ed by Kidong Bae and Mo- Oishu Cave (Masal re gion). It is nec es sary to em- hammad Reza Bagherian in 2008. They found pha sis that at least some of these shel tered sites lithic ar tifacts (14 pieces: cores and blades/bla- have the po ten tial for pre serv ing Pleis to cene re- delets) in the up per most layer of the test pit that cords of hum an occu pa ti on that have been buried based on their techno-ty po logi cal char ac ter is tics under later thick Holocene deposits. at trib uted to the Up per Paleolithic period (Bae, 2009). FI NAL RE MARKS Other cave sites This short re view indi cat es the high poten ti al A large number of cave sites have been re - of the Gilan province for resea rch into the archae - ported by Vali Jahani, and Yousef Falahian that ology of the Pleis tocene , espe cia lly for the Lower yielded surface finds of pot sherds, hum an and and Mid dle Pleis to cene (Ta ble 1). The Gilan faunal rem ains, mainly dat ing back to the Bronze prov ince cur rently fur nishes the clear est ev i dence Age and the Iron Age pe riods (Falahian, 2006b; for the Acheul ian indus try in Iran and the earli est Jahani, 2010). Among these sites one can menti on radio m etric date for the presence of hominins in Espahbodan (Khorgam region), Div Rash, and the Iranian Plateau. Vali Gord Caves (in the Rudbar region); Talabon Ganj Par is one of the few Ira nian Lower Gorj near Gorj vil lage (Siah Kal region), Varbon Paleolithic sites that could be as signed with cer - (Rudsar region), and Talabon Diarjan Caves (in tainty to the Acheul ian Indus tri al Com plex. The the Amlash region); Tanian Cave (Some’h Sara as sem blage shares tech no log i cal sim i lar i ties with The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 25 the Early and Mid dle Ach eul ian as semblages of Recent model ing of the Damavand fall out in - west ern Asia, includ ing the use of volca nic rocks di cated tephra dis persal be ing dom i nantly to ward as raw mate rial from gravel sources, the pres ence the east in all season, based on dom inance of wes- of large cut ting tools, the use of large flakes as terly troposheric winds (Mortazavi et al., 2009). blanks, the high fre quency of core-choppers, the There fore, if the re ported ash seams from the Dai- presence of discoid and anvil flaking along other laman area [230 km to the NW of the Damavand meth ods, and the spe cific use of raw mate rial for vol cano] are gen u inely di rect vol ca nic fall out de- produc ti on of certai n cores and core-tools (Biglari pos its, it is im pos si ble at pres ent to as sign them to and Shidrang, 2006). the Damavand (Alborz). Therefor e, if the ash Given the geographi c loca ti on of the Ganj Par layer in Dailaman is re ally volca nic, it is pos si ble site close to the Cau casus, its as semblage bears that they are from a volcano in the Cau casus re - closer re sem blance to the Cau ca sus Ach eul ian gion such as Aragats (Arm enia) , Elbrus (Cauca - than to the Western Zagros as sem blages (Biglari sus) or Ara rat volca noes (Manuel Berberian, per - and Shidrang, 2006). The narrow Sefidrud gorge, sonal com mu ni ca tion 2010). The vol ca nic ash where Ganj Par is lo cated, pro vides easy pas sage de pos its could have re sulted in sig nif i cant en vi- in two direc ti ons, south toward the Centra l Iran ronm ent disrup ti on and the daily life of the Ple- and the north Zagros, north to the southern shores istocene hunter-gatherers living in the study area. of the Cas pian Sea, and northwest to the Cauca - Yarshalman is the highest and the only sus, a region with a rich Acheul ian record (Liou- known Mid dle Paleolithic site in Gilan. Un for tu - bine, 2002). nately the small size of the lithic samples col - For the first time the Darband Cave allow ed lected at the site do not allow any further insight us to have insight into the lithic indus try , fauna, to the nature of the lithic indus try and Middle and their im pli cati on for paleoenvironment of the Paleolithic oc cu pa tion of the site. Be cause of its west ern Alborz dur ing the late Mid dle Pleis to - high al ti tude it might have been used by the Mid - cene. The site seems to have been visited spo rad i- dle Paleolithic groups with sub sis tence strat e gies cally by the late Lower Paleolithic hominins while adapted to upland resource s avail able in such cave bears used it ex ten sively as a denning place. mountai nous region during warmer period of last As for the Lasulkan, no detai led infor m ati on interglacial or interstadials. about the nature of the proba ble vol canic ash lay- Com pared with the Lower and Middle Paleo- ers and their rel ative age are available in Egami lithic records, the Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleo- (1963). Volca nic ash layers have been reporte d lithic pe ri ods are rel a tively well rep re sented in from the Kura basin and the south Caspian area: Gilan. The known sites are mainly con cen trated at (i) in the lower part of the Akchagil Stage Amarlou and Rudbar regions at al ti tude be tween (2.4–1.8 Ma) depos it s (ca. 2.4 Ma) in the Kura ba - about 800–1200 m a.s.l. (Fig. 1; Ta ble 1). While sin (Djavadova and Mamula, 1999); and (ii) the some of these sites have produced typologically upper part of the Apsheron Stage (1.75–0.7 Ma) char ac ter is tic ar ti facts such as small end-scrap ers depos it s (ca. 0.7 Ma) in the south Cas pian shores and truncat ed el em ents that could be assigne d to (Yasini, 1981) and the Kura basin (Djavadova Epipaleolithic, none of the known sites provided and Mamula, 1999). The Damavand vol cano in ar ti facts at trib ut able to Up per Paleolithic with any the cen tral Alborz be came active from at least 1.8 cer tainty. This is also the case at the eastern and Ma with pe ri od i cal con tin u a tion to about 7.3 ka centra l part of the Alborz Mountai ns where the BP (Davidson et al., 2004). Although detai led large number of sites fall within the Epipaleolithic study of the Damavand vol cano re vealed lim ited period, with only one excep ti on, the open-air site thin volca nic ash seams within the lahars de posit s of Garm Roud 2 that produced a rich bladelet in- and pum ice flows over the flanks and close vicin - dus try as so ci ated with fau nal re mains that are ity of the volca nic cone (Allenbach, 1966; David- dated to the end of the OIS 3 (Berillon et al., son et al., 2004; Mortazavi et al., 2009), no fin- 2007, 2009). ger print ing and ra dio met ric dat ing anal y ses have We have to wait unti l the Korean-Ir anian been conducte d on the reported ash seams in the teams pub lish the re sult of their re cent re search in Alborz Mountains. Chapalak, and Malehan-A caves that may con tain 26 F. Biglari & V. Jahani

Up per Paleolithic ev idence. In gen eral it seems AMIRLOU E. 1991. Ex ca va tion at Damavand. Ira nian that these sites in Amarlou and Rudbar repre sent Jour nal of Ar chae ol ogy and His tory 8–9, 90 (in Per - highland stati ons within the mobil e trajec tory of sian). the late Paleolithic groups. How ever, more evi - BAE K. 2009. Ar chae o log i cal sur vey of the Gilan dence is re quired to support this tentative con- Province, 2007–2008, In sti tute of Cul tural Prop er - ties, Hanyang Univer sity. Avail able at: http://hyicp. clusion. or.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_ta ble=re search&wr_id=8 De spite ex ten sive ero sion and dis tur bance [Ac cessed 2 June 2010]. proces ses in vari ous parts of Gilan and their ef- BERBERIAN M. 1983. The South ern Cas pian: A com- fects on pres er va tion of hu man Pleis to cene oc cu- pressional de pres sion floored by a trapped, modi fied pa tional re mains, there are many po ten tially rich oce anic crust. Cana dian Jour nal of Earth Sci ences areas that should be taken into consid er ati on for 20(2), 163–183. fur ther field research. The ter races of the Sefidrud BERBERIAN M., QORASHI M., JACK SON J.A., gorge and its trib u tar ies, karstic caves in lime - PRIESTLEY K., WALLACE T. 1992. The Rudbar- stone outcrops, loess/paleosol sequence s at Tarom earth quake of June 20, 1990 in NW Persia: Rostamabad, and the proba ble vol canic ash beds pre lim i nary field and seis mo log i cal ob ser va tions, and its tec tonic sig nif i cance. Bulle tin of the Seis mo- at Dailaman are par tic u larly promising for the log i cal So ci ety of Amer ica 82(4), 1726–1755. future prospects. BERBERIAN M., WALKER R. 2010. The Rudbâr Mw A large num ber of surveye d cave and rock 7.3 earth quake of 1990 June 20; seismotectoniocs, shel ter sites con tain ev idence for the Bronze/Iron coseismic and geomorphic dis place ments, and his - Age hum an ac tivit y, and may have functi oned as toric earth quakes of the west ern ‘High-Alborz’ of tem porary herding camps or other purposes such Iran. Geo phys i cal Jour nal In ter na tional 182(3), as burial of hum an rem ains. Despit e their rich ar- 1577–1602. chae o log i cal and paleontological ev i dence, most BERILLON G., KHANEGHAH A.A., ANTOINE P., of the caves and rock shel ters in Gilan conti nue to BAHAIN V., CHEVRIER B., ZEITOUN V., be threat ened by il le gal ex ca va tions. Al though a AMINZADEH N., BEHESHTI M., CHANZA- NAGH V., NACHADI S. 2007. Dis cov ery of new number of the afore men tioned sites are reg istered open-air Paleolithic local ities in Central Alborz, on the Na tional Reg is ter of His toric Places, it is North ern Iran. Jour nal of Hu man Evo lu tion 52, nec es sary to find more ef fec tive strat e gies for 380–387. their conservation and management. BERILLON G., KHANEGHAH A.A., ANTOINE P., BAHAIN V., CHEVRIER B., ZEITOUN V., AMINZADEH N., BEHESHTI M., CHANZA- Ac knowl edge ments NAGH V., NOCHADI S. 2009. Late Pleis to cene We greatly ap pre ci ate the con struc tive com ments Pre his tory in Cen tral Alborz: Pre lim i nary Re sults of from Manuel Berberian and Sonia Shidrang on ear lier the French and Ira nian Palaeoanthropological drafts of the manu script. F. Biglari wishes to thank Programme 2006 on the ex ca va tion of Garm Roud 2 Jebril Nokandeh, and Hossein Abdi for in tro duc ing him (Amol, Mazandaran). In: M. Otte, F. Biglari and J. to the rich poten tials of Gilan for pre historic re search. Jaubert (eds) Iran Palaeo lithic. Proceed ings of the XV World Con gress UISPP, Lisbon . BAR In ter na - tional Se ries 1968, Archaeopress, Oxford, 101–108. REF ER ENCES BIGLARI F. 2005. Ganj Par: New Ev i dence for Dis tri - ADACHI T. 2004. A few Chipped Stone Ar ti facts bution of the Ach eul ian into Iran. In: Amer i can Found in Shu’ul and Tappeh Jalaliyie, In: T. Ohtsu, Schools of Ori en tal Re search 2005 An nual Meet ing J. Nokandeh and K. Yamauchi (eds) Pre lim i nary Ab stract Book, Phil a del phia, 23. Peport of the Iran-Ja pan Joint Ar chae o log i cal Ex - BIGLARI F., ABDI H. 2001. The Khalvasht Rock- pe di tion to Gilan, Third Season, 2002. Ira nian Cul - shelter: A Proba ble Late Paleolithic Site at Amar- tural Her i tage Or ga ni za tion-MECC, Teh ran-To kyo, lou, The Gilan Prov ince. Iranian Jour nal of Ar chae - 72–75. ol ogy and His tory 15(1-2), 68–72 (in Per sian, with ALLENBACH P. 1966. Geologie und petrographie an Eng lish ab stract). des Damavand und seiner umgebung (Zentral BIGLARI F., ABDI H. 2003. Dis cov ery of Two Proba - Elburz), Iran. Mitteilungen aus der Geologischen ble Late Paleolithic Sites at Amarlou, The Gilan Institut der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hoch- Province, Caspian Ba sin. In: T. Ohtsu, J. Nokandeh schule und der Universität Zürich, Zürich. and K. Yamauchi (eds) Pre lim i nary Peport of the The Pleis to cene hu man set tle ment in Gilan 27

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